How to switch off

“Instead of saying ‘I have to’, try saying, ‘I get to.’ Looking at everything with more gratitude not only calms you down, but also puts you in a better mood. For example, ‘I have to clean my closet’, versus, ‘I get to clean my closet – how lucky am I that I have so many amazing things.’”

“Too often we rush through the day without fully experiencing it. Try picking one of your five senses and take five minutes to focus on it. For example, try eating and experiencing your food instead of simply eating for the sake of it, or, when walking from one appointment to the next, be mindful and focus your attention on what you see around you.”

“Even if it is just a few moments before responding to an email or answering a call, adding pauses can give you some important mental space in an otherwise frantic day.”

“Give yourself permission to ‘power down’ at all mealtimes. Recently, I had lunch with a girlfriend in LA and the first thing she did was take her phone out of her bag and put it on the table. She flipped it over as if to say she wasn’t going to look at it, but with every vibrate she did. I was fully present and she was a nervous wreck trying to communicate with me between every non-urgent message.”

“Setting aside 10 minutes a day to meditate. Find a quiet place to sit and then focus on your breath. Breathe in for five seconds, hold for five seconds and breathe out for five seconds; if you count while you breathe it is hard to have a racing mind. For novices, the Headspace app [available for iOS and Android] is a great teaching tool for meditation.”

For more tips on how to switch off, visit Unplug Meditation.